I just read the book Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and I have to tell you, I wasn’t expecting much. I thought it would be another narrative from a privileged woman in a privileged position, telling entrepreneurs like me things we couldn’t use. What I found was a thoughtful and insightful look in to leadership and the surprising ways we female entrepreneurs stand in our own ways. … [Read more...]
The Ties That Bind
In the past year I have found myself talking about partnership an awful lot. As one partnership crashed and burned this week and several other began, here is some advice I have learned. Understand your value When you are starting out I don’t care how much you think you know, you don’t know as much as someone with 10 years of experience on you. If you don’t have all of the … [Read more...]
The Business of Deceit
We all know that a sweet lie feels better than a hard truth, but in business it’s supposed to be all about the facts. In a world where perception can be skewed as quickly as a tweet is posted, how can you make sure that your business is telling you the hard truth all of the time? The truth is that you can’t. You can’t make sure that everything that reaches your eyes is beyond … [Read more...]
The Rules of Engagement
In business, relationships are everything. It’s who you know that can help you get where you want to be and all that hard work will come to fruition on that magical moment when you meet the right person at the right time in the right place. Until that time the most meaningful relationship you can have is taking care of yourself as a CEO and here's how you do it. Reward … [Read more...]
The New Business Credit
One of the most difficult areas to maneuver as an entrepreneur is getting your hands on the cash you need when you need it. Capital is a tricky thing, you never have it when you need it and what you do have is never enough. So what’s a small business to do? Well, enter Lendo Limted. This caught my eye in the Wall Street Journal and here’s we entrepreneurs need to know… It’s … [Read more...]
Great Expectations and the Entrepreneur
Every entrepreneur envisions that time when they land the big contract, but then the demands start and you think ‘this was not what I signed up for’. You suddenly have to be somewhere at a certain time and some clients demand a certain amount of hours. Typically a consultant has very fluid hours, but what do you do when this happens? And what happens when you end up on a team … [Read more...]
The Sale of the Century
As business owner’s our life blood is in making the sales, but the test in is receiving the payment. We need those payments, they are a measure of success for our business and for ourselves. But what happens when we don’t receive those payments? Here’s what I’ve learned about money from my business. Always have a plan B That old adage about counting your chickens before they … [Read more...]
How to Make Being a CEO Work for You
As an entrepreneur I can’t lie it seems like we have a lot of perks. We think that it’s great because we make our own schedules, we don’t have to answer to anybody and we can set our own fees but let’s be realistic here. The truth is we have none of those things. We do answer to someone, they are called clients and they determine if we will be around to answer to anyone else. … [Read more...]
And the Winner Is…
Success…and then what? As we start our businesses, we are constantly chasing a dream. We work insane hours, sacrifice everything that means anything to us because we know that success is coming. When we finally get it what happens? As I found out that I had been awarded a big contract, a colleague reminded me to not get comfortable with the success, to remember that I was … [Read more...]
Business by Perception
This week has been a blur of promotions for the Lance Armstrong interview and I’ve begun to wonder, how do you protect the image of your company when your company is you? There is an old adage that says ‘you are the company you keep’, but in this increasingly global marketplace how realistic is that? Is it reasonable to assume we can manage all of our partnerships and alliances … [Read more...]